Why Choose Creekside Digital?

Since 2006, Creekside Digital has focused on providing top-quality, standards-compliant digitization of microfilm, books, newspapers, photographs, artwork, and objects using the most advanced technology available today, as well as developing related software applications. Our state-of-the-art services are delivered by people who have many years of experience in photography, imaging, and software, and who are passionate about what they do. Our Glen Arm, MD facilities are located within close proximity of many institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region housing significant collections of the types of materials which we typically digitize. Most importantly, none of our image capture services are outsourced — all scanning and photography is performed by our highly trained staff either at our Maryland service bureau or on-location at your institution. This is the only way we’re able to consistently deliver the superior quality digitization services our customers demand.

TTI 4060 copy stand with vacuum board and NorthLight HID lights

Unlike many of our competitors, Creekside Digital doesn’t make or resell any scanning hardware – we’re exclusively a service provider. This means that we have complete freedom to use the absolute best imaging systems available anywhere, at any price – the right tool for any given job – regardless of the manufacturer who happens to make them. And while you’ll see us mention some of those manufacturers on our website, we don’t get compensated for doing so. Rather, we choose to highlight certain systems because they provide unique capabilities that allow us to fulfill our mission – providing the highest quality imaging services available today at reasonable prices. In many cases, this isn’t accomplished by “push button” scanning – it’s truly custom digital photography of your materials by professional photographers using infinitely adjustable cameras, lenses, and lights as well as specialized post-capture workflows and standards-based quality assurance to ensure that the final output adheres to the required specifications. There are no shortcuts to high quality imaging.

FADGI and NDNP – Standards for High Quality Digitization

Isn’t “high quality” subjective? No – not when you’re measuring technical image quality. Creekside Digital uses procedures, workflows and quality metrics defined by the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative, or FADGI. Multiple agencies of the United States Government which perform cultural heritage digitization on a large scale – including the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the Smithsonian Institution – implement these standards and are beginning to require that their vendors adhere to them as well.

Any vendor that is able to consistently execute against the FADGI standards should be able to provide a recent scan of a hardware-independent device-level target such the one at the right demonstrating their capabilities and awareness of these important Federal quality metrics. Creekside Digital has a successful track record of creating FADGI-compliant images – including some which meet or exceed the FADGI 4-Star Guidelines – both in our facilities and onsite at our customers’ locations. We’re proud of this accomplishment – 4-Star compliant images are tough to achieve, but we’re able to consistently deliver them when they’re required.

Creekside Digital has also successfully completed multiple projects for the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) – a program funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and administered by the Library of Congress. The NDNP specifications represent arguably the most stringent microfilm digitization standards that exist today. Creekside Digital has repeatedly demonstrated that we have the experience, project management personnel, and comprehensive knowledge of both the imaging and complex metadata requirements to consistently deliver NDNP-compliant output.

Milestones

2006: Creekside Digital created (from National Archives microfilm) the first complete archive of the military service records of an entire state’s Civil War soldiers on the Internet. This project, Civil War Microfilm, remains the most comprehensive web repository of its kind, and continues to expand its content with other states’ records.

2009: Creekside Digital took delivery of the first i2S CopiBook HD 600 scanner in the United States and began to offer high-quality digitization of bound and oversized books, newspapers, photographs, and manuscripts in addition to our microfilm scanning services.

2010: Creekside Digital was selected by LYRASIS, the largest regional library membership organization in the United States, to provide preservation-quality microfilm digitization services to its members through the LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative. This program, funded by a $1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, subsidizes the cost of the scanning and processing for member institutions and allows Creekside Digital to offer truly top-drawer, archival microfilm digitization at a very reasonable price.

2011: Creekside Digital relocated to its current location in Glen Arm, MD, and began offering ultra-quality fine art scanning services, 12-color wide-format giclée printmaking, and museum-grade custom framing to artists, galleries, photographers, institutions, and the public at large. LYRASIS partnership expanded to include microfiche digitization and non-Sloan eligible content.

Small or large, we can handle almost any project. Creekside Digital can scan a single book or roll of microfilm, burn it to a DVD, and send it to you — providing a high-quality service at a reasonable price. We can also create an entire web-based archive for you, consisting of thousands of books or rolls of digitized film, indexed and searchable per your specifications and available from anywhere in the world. Contact us today to discuss your project.

Insured for your Protection

We understand that each customer’s project is not only unique, but also may be very valuable. For that reason, we carry insurance which protects each customer’s items while in our facility. With advance notification, we can insure your higher-value project to ensure that your items are protected while in our care — please contact us for details.

Our Guarantee

Creekside Digital guarantees the quality of the digital images provided to the Customer, and will correct, at no additional charge, any problems related to the scanning process only, if notified by the Customer within thirty (30) days of delivery of the images to the Customer.

What’s in a Name?

We are fortunate to be surrounded by a wealth of history and natural beauty in Baltimore County. Initially, we were located overlooking a small tributary called Towson Run. Originating near the historic village of Providence (no longer in existence), Towson Run meanders through a wonderfully preserved forest of oak, beech, and poplar before meeting the Gunpowder River and eventually flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. Used as a hunting ground for centuries and called the Barrans Property in modern times, this woodlot was recently saved from impending development and became part of Cromwell Valley Park. Intrepid explorers can still locate the ruins of old barns, sunken roads, and even the foundations of cabins which belonged to freed slaves who once called the area home.

Our current location is in beautiful Glen Arm, MD, in the scenic Long Green Valley Historic District of Baltimore County, about 10 minutes from the Baltimore Beltway. Our facilities were originally built in 1893 as a warehouse serving the now-defunct Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Ma & Pa’s Glen Arm station, built in 1909, still stands a few yards across the street. Our building has housed companies that manufactured peach crates and Ouija Boards, munitions during WWI, and Sherman Tanks and parts for Glenn L. Martin’s airplanes during WWII. In 1958, the Ma & Pa folded and its right-of-way was removed, and in 1960 the Koppers Corporation expanded the building and constructed a large fireproof archives vault of solid concrete. Today, this vault houses Creekside Digital’s main imaging studio.

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Wow . . . check out the difference in resolution and dynamic range versus the "old versions" on these digitized glass plate negs from Smithsonian Gardens! Being digitized from negatives, it is necessary to essentially "digitally develop" each plate into an aesthetically pleasing positive image from the RAW negative master, which is at least partially a subjective process. This is much like a traditional photographer creating prints in an analog darkroom. ... See MoreSee Less

One of our mantras is "from the shelf to the public" and our recently completed digitization project of glass plate negatives in the Thomas Warren Sears collection of Smithsonian Gardens is a wonderful example of that. Shown here is just one of 3,284 plates that were digitized, with some examples of our "before" and "after" online versions. There is so much detail to explore in these beautiful plates, we invite you to take a look at the collections.si.edu site (search on "Thomas Warren Sears Archives of American Gardens").